PokerStars Forced to Remove Soccer Legend Neymar from Advertisments

Neymar has captivated soccer audiences around the globe with his brilliant skills, captivating personality, and unique hairstyles. In a recent advertising campaign, PokerStars hoped to capitalize on Neymar’s infectious image. The online poker company put Neymar in various online advertisements with other soccer legends, Ronaldo Nazário de Lima and Christiano Ronaldo.

PokerStars Forced to Nix Neymar from Commercials

Unfortunately, PokerStars was forced to remove Neymar from these online advertisements. The reason for Neymar’s removal is that the Brazilian, at the age of 23, is too young to be featured in gambling commercials.

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission’s website indicates that “No one who is, or seems to be, under 25 years old may be featured gambling or playing a significant role in an advertising campaign.”

Unfortunately, PokerStars was forced to remove the Brazilian from their United Kingdom-based advertisements.

PokerStars Spends Big Money on Advertising

According to a PokerStars spokesperson, the website’s advertising campaign that featured Neymar, Ronaldo, and Lima was the most expensive advertising campaign ever made by PokerStars. The commercials were launched on Facebook, where millions of fans follow pages dedicated to their favorite soccer stars. For example, Ronaldo has over 106 million fans on Facebook, while Neymar has over 53 million Facebook followers.

This campaign featured commercials that used the aforementioned soccer players as spokespeople for PokerStars. Michael Hazel, the temporary CEO at Rational Group, says that this soccer-themed marketing campaign was created to attract an international audience to PokerStars. Rational Group is the company that owns PokerStars.

Hazel also hopes that bringing in these soccer legends helps draw Facebook users to PokerStars. In a recent conversation with a news reporter, Hazel said, “The videos show how each of the stars love the game of poker in their own unique way.” These commercials will eventually air on television, too.